Bigoted Landlord Files Criminal Complaint Against Critic Who Called Him Bigoted
from the if-you-criminalize-opinions,-only-criminals-will-have-opinions dept
In yet another example of how the UK's government's stated respect for free speech is continually undercut by its actions, a bigoted landlord is bringing charges against a YouTuber for calling him bigoted. (via Innocent Abroad)
Fergus Wilson said he will ‘bankrupt’ Danny Hyde over a video criticising his policy to ban non-white tenants ‘because of the curry smell they leave behind’.
Hyde was referring to statements Wilson made last year, which were part of a bigger leak of inside info that exposed Wilson's extremely questionable tenant standards.
In addition to banning "coloureds" (Wilson's actual words), Wilson also refused to rent housing to single mothers, "zero-hour workers," and battered wives. Quite the humanitarian. So there's no shortage of criticism waiting for Wilson, who actually had to be told refusing to rent to people with darker skin tones was *gasp* illegal.
Multi-millionaire Fergus Wilson, 69, tried to ban non-white tenants because of the ‘cost of removing the smell of curry at the end of their tenancy’. Today a county court ruled the policy was unlawful.
Hyde's video is full of stuff Wilson doesn't want to hear, but that shouldn't make it illegal. Hyde suggests banning curry rather than entire races and describes Wilson as a "penis" and a "bum splat." Here in the United States, those statements would be protected hyperbolic statements of opinion. In the UK, however, they're arguably illegal. This is the video Wilson hopes to shut down with his abuse of a badly-written law. (NSFW: language)
Wilson has filed a complaint stating Hyde's video violates the Malicious Communications Act of 1988. This UK law criminalizes communications "sent" with the purpose of "causing distress or anxiety." The scope of the law is incredibly broad. Ironically enough, the purpose of the legislation was to curb "racially or religiously motivated comments." You know, like saying you're banning "coloureds" for making apartments "smell like curry."
Instead of being wielded against Wilson and his bigoted statements, it's being used to silence a critic of Wilson's bigoted statements. And Wilson has threatened to sue Hyde into bankruptcy if the law fails to result in a $10,000 fine and the forcible removal of the video.
This is the problem with laws targeting speech. Supporters of this type of legislation claim this will make public discourse better and friendlier. Who wouldn't want to see online harassment and bullying brought to a halt? But it never works out that way. The bullying and harassment continues. The only thing that changes is who's handing it out.
Groups frequently targeted by hateful speech never benefit from these laws. Powerful people like Wilson are the ones most likely to use bad speech laws to punish the little guy who just won't shut up. And if it's not powerful people doing the bullying, it's the government itself, handing out fines and removing content it doesn't like while claiming to be offended on behalf of others.
Bad laws encourage legal thuggery. There's no ignoring that fact. Speech laws are often bad laws because they're written with an eye on the hypothetical situation where do-gooding government types clean up the internet by punishing hateful, bigoted people. But when actually put to use, it's hateful, bigoted, powerful people shutting people down for calling them hateful and bigoted.
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Filed Under: danny hyde, defamation, fergus wilson, free speech, uk
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Here's to lysdexia!
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Re: Here's to lysdexia!
There was sage advice last week to not advertise when you've figured out that made a mistake. The advice so displeased fanboys that the comment admitting such failure was elevated to funniest of week.
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That's 33 thousand pounds per leaseholder.
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I would imagine that is the landlords responsibility.
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Think of how a North American-style condo board may decide that major repairs or renovations are necessary, and pass the costs on to the owners. (Like glass-wall condos in Canada having to be reclad at $100,000 per unit, and a great many new condos in British Columbia that quickly needed roof replacements.)
But leaseholders in the UK, with no elected condo board, have no say. They have to pay up, or leave and lose their investment.
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Amicus brief to be filed by the Guild of British Plumbers...
No need - just wait until he has a leaky pipe.
Good luck with getting someone to fix it!
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Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
[ But the smell of curried cooking IS offensive. If possible, I'd condemn you to live with it for a year, then ask your opinion on the headline point. This Landlord is acting on behalf of other tenants, to some degree. ]
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
It says right in the article (quoting the video) that they could ban curry instead of people.
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
I had the smell of curried cooking often coming in under my apartment door for a couple years.
It meant that I was hungry all the time, because the smell was wonderful.
Now there's a douchebro who alternates between pot and cigars.
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Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
For Chef's, an onion (there are six sub varieties that include garlic) contains more flavor than the entire spice rack. But they can sure give off some (delicious) odors. Some neighbors object, other come looking for an invitation to dine.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
I found it strange they cooked all hours of the day or night, but shift work means you eat at different times. Still, their kitchen window was under my bedroom window ... ugh.
I never once complained to the neighbours - after all, their house and they were entitled to cook what they wanted, but I was relieved when my daughter moved in. She doesn't like curry either :)
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Lingering smells... roast chicken. Yum!
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Congratulations you’ve found your one millionth anomaly!
Does blue get a prize or something?
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
The guy is a racist dick, and his complaint has no chance at all. But surely 'freedom of speech' means the freedom to file a complaint if one wishes?
Oh, and try not to quote the 'metro.co.uk' too often - it's the free version of the Daily Mail.
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Just the White ones, it would seem.
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Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Just the White, Middle Class, Childless, Married, Non-smoking, Non-plumber ones without pets
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Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!
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Re: Re: Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- pleased to meet you, hope you guessed my name!
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Seems to me that you have a track record for finding "anomalies". Maybe they're not actually anomalies and you're just a massive tool.
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
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'Common law', shorthand for 'I win'
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Re: 'Common law', shorthand for 'I win'
Common law is what Blue says it is, i.e. Blue's opinion using the idea of law as a fig leaf.
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Re: 'Common law', shorthand for 'I win'
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
No, it's not. But, even if you do find this to be the case, you'd have to be a racist moron not to realise that a lot of white people in the UK also cook & eat curry. Go to any curry house, and you'll see a parade of white people eating it, many of whom will at least be heating up their doggy bag the next day in their apartment even if they don't cook it from scratch another day.
"This Landlord is acting on behalf of other tenants, to some degree"
Then, he'd ban the food, not the group of people he assumes are most likely to eat it.
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Re: Re: Congratulations, congratulations, well done, my friend, you've done it again, you've gone and broken another heart, yeah, you've torn it apart
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Re: Congratulations for finding another horrid anomaly -- by which the primacy of common decency and common law is proven.
Or are you just a racist piece of crap troll?
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I would.
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http://www.delish.com/food/news/a38906/top-ten-stinky-foods-durian-natto/ has some ideas too
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That explains politeness
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Re: That explains politeness
The difference is that winning in court means bankrupting the name-caller rather than obtaining a favorable judgement.
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Re: That explains politeness
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Is there something about plunbers?
(I would have assumed that plumbers would tend to be desirable tenants, rather than poor ones).
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Re: Is there something about plunbers?
They seem to charge more than the perceived value of their services? That may or may not be true, but the next time you have a leak, or a stoppage, try fixing it yourself. Especially in an apartment building!
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Re: Is there something about plunbers?
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Re: Is there something about plunbers?
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Re: Is there something about plunbers?
After all, plumbers only go to jobs where the people don't have any money <pouts> and have to 'find another way to pay'.
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Latest news
Shout out to Gerard Clarke of Blackman Chambers and Giles Peaker of Anthony Gold.
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...and lost because he's a racist moron who somehow doesn't notice all the white people eating curry.
"In addition to banning "coloureds" (Wilson's actual words)"
That's the thing that gets me. I don't think I've ever heard anyone in the UK use that term. It's something I associate with black & white photos of the US during the Jim Crow era, I've never heard anyone use it in actual conversation over the side of the pond. Hell, it's not actually offensive here to refer to people as black anyway (African-American is actually more offensive to most black people I know, because they don't wish to be referred to as "American", so they get annoyed when they go on holiday there :)), and when referring to people as "Asian" usually refers to people from the Indian subcontinent as much as anywhere further east why would you need to come up with euphemisms?
If he weren't in an actual position to mess up peoples' lives on a whim, I'd say he was just joking about everything based on this terminology alone.
"Wilson also refused to rent housing to single mothers, "zero-hour workers," and battered wives"
I can kind of understand the first 2. In a purely business-minded sense, these are 2 groups that are higher risk, even if it's a scummy thing to do to reject them outright without looking at overall circumstances. But, battered wives? That makes zero sense. But, then again I suppose he's also stated "no plumbers", which is also rather mystifying.
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...which in and of itself is quite reasonable. The problem comes when he's basically saying that he'd be happy with a curry-munching family of white people, but will refuse to rent to a family of Indian descent who don't really care for the stuff.
The guy does clearly have a lot of other issues, but even if he is genuinely just opposed to the smell he's going about it in completely the wrong way.
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despite single adults already being excluded, so "no wife beaters" would have worked just as well.. but you know this way it nicely shows out how he thinks the wife is the problem. Also like how he specifically excludes single mums and single fathers despite already having all single adults excluded.. You know just to be a dick
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Then he dies. End.
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When I get turned down, I can sue the ever living SHIT out of him for discrimination.
I wonder how many of us it'd take before fatboy (not slim) there was bankrupt and having to suck off homeless dudes under a bridge to afford his daily fix of cake?
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